Climate Connections: Navigating Missoula’s electric vehicle future
Devin Filicicchia
Electric vehicles seem to be everywhere these days—around town, online, in the news. While the vehicles that get the most publicity are often futuristic ones toting a high price tag, for many people, an electric vehicle can be a practical, affordable choice. With point-of-sale tax credits up to $7,500 and reduced fuel and maintenance costs, they can fit into a lot of budgets.
In addition to cost considerations, electric vehicles are also a great way to reduce climate impacts associated with transportation. Here in Missoula, over a third of our community’s climate pollution comes from transportation, much of that single occupancy vehicle travel. EVs aren’t a silver bullet – which is why it’s also important to invest in transit and infrastructure that makes Missoula more walkable and bikeable.
But for trips that do require cars, transitioning to EVs could make a huge dent in our community’s carbon emissions. Even with a big chunk of Montana’s electricity coming from coal, the average emissions associated with an electric vehicle are less than a third of those from a gasoline-powered vehicle.
As electric vehicles become increasingly common in and around Missoula, the City of Missoula is looking to be proactive and ensure that EV adoption (and the benefits associated with it) can happen in a more equitable and intentional way.
That’s why we are in the process of creating an Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan that will define the City’s role and next steps when it comes to EV charging. In creating this plan, we are also hoping to learn more about community concerns and visions related to EV infrastructure. We anticipate the plan will be released in spring 2025.
Why do we need an EV infrastructure plan? Currently, most of the charging infrastructure around town is from private investments: companies that have installed facilities based on their business plans or projections of demand. [AH2] This is not a bad thing – developing a robust and convenient charging network across our state and within communities is critical to making more folks feel comfortable purchasing an EV – especially in a large state like Montana.
However, while “range anxiety” and long-distance travel has gotten a lot of attention in the media, in reality most electric vehicle charging actually happens at home. In today’s infrastructure landscape, electric vehicles are most accessible to those with private off-street parking and often make less sense to those who are living in multi-family dwellings or who have no off-street opportunities to charge.
One goal of the City’s EV infrastructure plan is to ensure that charging can happen in places that help meet everyone’s needs—in neighborhoods, at workplaces, and at popular destinations. The City currently has no plans to purchase and install EV infrastructure, but understanding where it is desired (or not) will help inform grant applications, future partnerships, and next steps.
That’s where you come in! We need community input to make sure this plan reflects Missoula’s unique needs. There are a couple ways to engage with creating the City’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Plan. Your involvement is important to this planning process, and we want to hear from you.
One option is to engage online, through the plan’s Engage Missoula project page. On this website, you can provide feedback in a few different ways: by plotting preferred infrastructure sites on a map; posing a question you may have about electric vehicles or this planning project; or sharing an idea you have.
If you don’t have any feedback just yet, the website also answers some “frequently asked questions” about EVs, along with an option to subscribe to future project updates – like future in-person engagement opportunities, including those below.
We’ll be out in the community gathering feedback at several in-person events this fall, with more dates to come:
- On Saturday, September 28th from 10a-2p, we’ll be hosting an “EV Ride & Drive” at the Climate and Clean Energy Expo in Caras Park. This event will be a great opportunity to learn more about electric vehicles, get some of your questions answered, and see some of the vehicles that are on the market today. (Plus, the Expo is a great way to learn more about other local climate solutions and get involved!)
- On Monday, September 30th from 12-1:30p, we’ll be hosting an “EV Listening and Visioning Session” in Cooper Space B at the Missoula Public Library, as part of the community-wide Climate Solutions Week. This event will provide background about EV infrastructure planning work and an opportunity for feedback.
I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas and input as we move towards an electric future! For updates and more information, please subscribe to project updates on the Engage Missoula page. In addition, feel free to send questions to me at filicicchiad@ci.missoula.mt.us.